I'm sticking to my guns on scale, but those pictures sure make that thing look big so maybe it is to-scale afterall...

Removable astromech seems intentional, but not "complete" so you could just stick R2 in there or something... That's odd, unless it's underscaled I don't quite understand why they went that route with things rather than a full socket like the Saga/OTC X-Wing had.

It does look nice so far though. Better than I was anticipating actually.

SilverZ

I don't understand the lame design notion they've developed in the PT that gives all these style-over-function things like droid sockets that don't fit actual droids. As a side effect, it is making lame toy features. Why would we want to remove a halved droid unit?

SilverZ

I think that's the problem -- the original ship design doesn't have enough room for a full droid to physically fit (just like the original Jedi Starfighter), and now the toy is movie-accurate. So we get that severed below the shoulders R2 thinger.

Not that is really bothers me, but it just brings up all the issues I have with the look of the movies. Doug Chiang was the next worst thing to happen to the movies, right after McCallum and sloppy storytelling. The look the universe had at the end of AOTC is where it should have started, and Erik Tiemens and Ryan Church should have been there from the start. But I'm way off topic now...

But why did they continue that flaw? They explained it away using EU BS for Obi's lame ass "R4" (also lame ass) but why do it again for R2? There's no reason they couldn't have elongated the back end of the ship for a proper Astromech slot.

PLUS...having the astromech droid in the front of a fighting ship like that seems pretty dumb logistically

I'm perplexed on that whole droid socket thing too, unless there's actually room below there that we can't see. It's possible... Otehrwise it's just gonna be rubbish in the film and as a toy.

Either way, it sounds like this stuff's due to hit here in the next couple of weeks folks, as per our report... It's already there possibly, so maybe some leaks will come of these like the regular line's figures seem to always trickle out too.

at least with the way the naboo starfighter was shown in ep1, the droid was pulled up and locked in the socket. I don't have the toy of it so I don't remember if the r2 was removable or not. But it looked l ike it fit the entire droid vs obi's jedi starfighter in ep2 with just the head of the droid hard wired into the ship.

SilverZ

But it looked l ike it fit the entire droid vs obi's jedi starfighter in ep2 with just the head of the droid hard wired into the ship.

And I think that's how they explained it in EU-BS lore, too... R4 was a droid dome only, and got a body later. It's just lame that such a halfassed idea has now become OK in the functionality of the SW universe that they did it again for the new fighters.

Is there a Target DPCI# for the new ship floating around somewhere? It seems really odd that this isn't out there yet with the Sneak figs spewing out en masse right now.

I was wondering about the Preview ship as well. Are we supposed to get this starting next Tuesday (the "official" sneak preview date)? I'm wondering if there is a delay, since it seems like there would have been someone that snagged one early by now. From all I have seen, it sounds as if the only sightings/purchases have been overseas. Other than a couple of the Animated figures and maybe some more preview wookiees, this is about the only Star Wars purchase yet to make until the ROTS line arrives in April. Has the price been mentioned at all for this ship? I'm guessing in the $20ish range, although $15 would be nicer.